St. Paul’s Primetimers
April 2023 Newsletter
Tour Rice’s New Brockman Hall for Opera
On Thursday, April 13, the PrimeTimers will visit Rice University for a tour of the new Brockman Hall for Opera conducted by Shepherd School of Music Dean and St. Paul’s member Matthew Loden. Bus transportation from the church has been reserved, and the group will be limited to the 35 participants on the bus. See RSVP details at right. With design inspiration from historic opera houses in Europe, the openness of the Royal Opera of Versailles was particularly favored for its special connection between the performers and the audience and related acoustics. This is particularly important for a university opera house because operatic voices do not mature until the singers are into their 20s, sometimes 30s. Larger performance spaces with less refined acoustics can ruin a developing voice. The 84,000-squarefoot building that debuted to the public in April 2022 with Mozart’s Don Giovanni is adjoined by a plaza to Alice Pratt Brown Hall to comprise the Brockman Music and Performing Arts Center. The Lucian and Nancy Morrison Theatre performance space is a three-tiered, 600seat theatre with an orchestra pit for 70 musicians. This unusually large pit for a college provides professional-level experience opportunities for more instrumentalists as the vocalist students gain their experience on stage. The second level of the building holds rehearsal halls, teaching studios, and practice rooms.
It is anticipated that this new addition to Houston’s performance venues also will be utilized for social events as well as by other performing organizations, both local and touring.
• Where/When: Bus leaves St. Paul’s on Thursday, April 13, at 10:20 am to tour Rice University’s Brockman Hall for Opera.
• RSVP: by Tuesday April 11, to prime timers@stpaulshous ton.org. Limited to the 35 participants on the bus; a wait list will begin after capacity is met.
• Cost: Self-pay lunch after tour at Black Walnut Cafe in Rice Village.
• Questions: prime timers@stpauls houston.org or call Rev. Melinda Owens at 713-528-0527.
Our Tour Guide
The roots of Dean Matthew Loden go deep in music and also St. Paul’s. His grandfather, Lanson Demming, was recruited from the University of Illinois to be St. Paul’s Choirmaster and Organist, where he served from 1944 to 1975. His mother and father were St. Paul’s Choir members, and his mother, Ann Loden, was a long-time violin teacher in Houston, later teaching music and kindergarten at St. Paul’s School.
St. Paul’s Primetimers
An Early Memory of Matthew Loden
by Brad Harmes
On my first visit to St. Paul’s shortly after taking a job in Houston while Linda was still in Austin, the bulletin stated that the choir was on tour in England and a violin recital was scheduled for 4 pm that day.
I returned for the recital expecting an adult, or at least college student, and was amazed when a 14 year-old (Matthew Loden) stepped out and played one of the best recitals I had ever heard.
I decided St. Paul’s was the place for me!
After the tour, the church bus will take the group to Rice Village for a self-pay lunch at the Black Walnut Cafe, 5510 Morningside Drive.
An “American style restaurant,” the menu features includes appetizers, soups, salads, sandwiches, burgers, and tacos plus pasta dishes, grilled foods, and complete entrees.
For a preview of their menu, please see www.blackwalnutcafe.com
YouTube videos about Brockman Hall for Opera include:
• Brockman Hall for Opera
• A Celebration for Brockman Hall for Opera
• A Celebration for Brockman Hall for Opera caps off events for Rice Shepherd School’s new building
If you or someone you know would like to receive this newsletter via email or the U.S. Postal Service, please contact Donna V. Adair via donna.adair@gmail.com
Following Up on March Meeting
Through arrangements made by Steven Fenberg, Houston Endowment has given St. Paul’s portraits of Jesse Jones’ aunt, Louisa Jones, and uncle, Martin Tilford (M.T.) Jones, both of whom also were charter members of the church.
The portrait of Louisa Jones was painted by Emma Richardson Cherry, also a leader for fine art in Houston. She helped organize the Houston Public School Art League in 1900. Renamed the Houston Art League in 1912, the organization began developing plans for a fine art museum with those plans coming to pass in 1924 with the opening of the now Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
The hardcover format of Fenberg’s book about Jesse Jones, Unprecedented Power:
Jesse Jones, Capitalism, and the Common Good, is currently out of print, but the softcover still may be ordered through most bookstores.
To watch Fenberg’s EmmyAward-winning film about Jones, as presented on History’s Best on PBS with narration by Walter Cronkite, Brother, Can You Spare a Billion? The Story of Jesse H. Jones, on the YouTube website, type in the film’s title. Several other videos about Jesse Jones also will appear as options to watch.
For more about Fenberg, see his website, www.stevenfenberg.com, where links to his many publications, interviews, and editorials are provided along with documentaries he has produced.
The Astrodome was formally closed in 2009, and its status has been in and out of the headlines since then. The non-profit Astrodome Conservancy was created in June 2016 followed that September by the Harris County Commissioner’s Court’s approval of $105 million to fund Phase 1 of the Astrodome’s revitalization.
Catch up on the Astrodome’s latest developments at the May 11 PrimeTimers meeting when Conservancy Historian Mike Acosta will present.
In the meantime, see www.astrodome conservancy.org).
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Thanks to Brad Harmes for arranging the April day trip.
If you have ideas for other day trips or programs, please tell any of the Steering Committee members listed on the front page or email primetimers@stpauls houston.org
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